Woodland Hills Church - High Quality Audio

The love of God expressed in Christ on the cross was “foolishness to the Gentiles” and “a stumbling block to the Jews”. God’s love is scandalous to us all in different ways.

It is impossible to fully grasp God's love because it is infinite! The best we can do is humbly recognize our limitations in this way and give ourselves over to the overwhelming love that God extends to us.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the son leaves home and experiences intensely that something is missing. Eventually he comes to his senses and goes home to his father. Greg connected this desire that the son felt to the German word sehnsucht which is a powerful form of longing that we all feel at times in our lives.

For our Good Friday service, Greg looked at the life and death of Jesus using three different Marys. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene.

In the final week of our “Kingdom Economics” series, Greg answers four questions that were submitted by the congregation and podrishioners. 1) Why doesn’t WHC teach tithing? 2) I’m broke! Didn’t God promise me I’d reap what I’ve sown? 3) If misfortune isn’t a “curse” from God, why think good fortune is a “blessing” from God? 4) Is America “blessed”?

During the series, many people have sent in questions about their personal finances. Today we heard from a panel of people from Woodland Hills who responded to those questions with Kingdom of God principles.

In week two of our “Kingdom Economics” series, Greg answers three questions that were submitted by the congregation and podrishioners. 1) Does having a savings account show a lack of faith in God? 2) Does saving for retirement show a lack of trust in God? 3) Is declaring bankruptcy a sin?

Matthew 6:24 tells us that we “cannot serve both God and mammon.” Instead, we can live out kingdom principles with our finances.

Leave it to Jesus to challenge one of our most central cultural values – justifying violence by manipulating scripture. In this sermon, we discover what it means to practice non-violence both in our actions and our attitudes.

Despite Jesus clearly foretelling it, Peter didn’t think he would deny Jesus. But just as Jesus knew Peter would fall, he knew he’d get back up again too.

Jesus came both to save us and to reveal the character of God to us. Rather than coming in great power God came and served. Jesus calls us to “opt out” of the worldly desire to be better than others and learn to love them even when we profoundly disagree with them.

When reviewing Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, Greg had two questions in mind for us to consider: “Was Judas fated to betray Jesus?” And “Why did Judas betray Jesus?”

At the Passover meal just before Jesus was killed he instituted the practice of communion. When we take communion, we do so in the time between the initial experience of our faith and the final fulfillment of our unity with God and each other. This space “in-between” is like the wilderness the Jews experienced after leaving Egypt but before entering the promised land.

As Jesus was warning his disciples about the coming destruction of the temple he instructed them to be careful lest their hearts be weighed down in various ways. This warning applies not only to Jesus’ disciples at that time, but also to his disciples today.

Jesus warned his disciples about the coming destruction of the temple. This prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD. Yet there are timeless truths to be found in this text regarding what it means to prepare for what lies ahead of us.

In the story of the widow with her two small coins Jesus shows us that it is not the amount that we give that matters, but rather how much of a sacrifice that amount really is for us.

Jesus shows us what godly leadership looks like in two ways. First by modeling it with his own life and second by confronting those who abuse the authority that comes with leadership.

Our American culture seems to have grown more open to spiritual things in recent history. In general this openness is good—but there is also the danger of losing the uniqueness of what we believe as Christians—that Jesus IS God and not merely one of many ways that God is expressed in the world.

In many ways, Jesus is like the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future in Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol. However, much more than remind us of our past, Jesus has the power to transform it which allows us new freedom both in our present and our future.

When we work for justice in the world, we are partnering with what God is already doing. It’s important that we seek God first, rest in God’s love, and only then can respond faithfully to the call to partner with God by fighting for justice in our communities.